Humility, a sense of reverence before the sons of heaven—
of all the prizes that a mortal man might win,
these, I say, are wisest; these are best.

The lines praise humility and reverence toward the divine (“sons of heaven,” i.e., the gods) as the highest “prizes” available to human beings. In Euripidean tragedy, mortal overconfidence—especially impiety or hubris—often precipitates catastrophe, while proper awe before divine power is framed as a kind of practical wisdom. The speaker’s claim that these virtues are “wisest” and “best” suggests an ethical hierarchy: external successes (victory, wealth, status) are unstable, but humility and reverence orient a person toward limits, accountability, and the cosmic order. Read this way, the passage functions as a moral maxim typical of choral reflection, distilling the play’s action into a caution against pride.